I'm looking at a house in SW Kansas real close to the Colorado border. I can't take this brutal cold here when it's well below zero. I'm just wondering about how the coyote and cat populations are out that way. I'm keeping my house and resident status here, so this would be a vacation home for Nov Dec Jan Feb. I could eventually transition to full time if things work out. I've been watching the weather for a few weeks out there and it looks decent. I don't mind 20's at night and 30's in the day. I have had nights here this winter of 29, 28, 22, and many nights in the teens below zero. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

woodsman324- Are you serious or just some cabin fever leg pulling...?

How old are you woodsman? I know for a fact that it is hard to take prolonged cold when you get some age on you! Ol aurther just wont leave you alone. And the more wounds you had in your life just haunts the dickens out of ya!

I've trapped in that country, and it seems like the sun shines more out there than in eastern Ks where I'm from. Been quite a few years since I trapped out there, but when I did, there were lots of yotes but not much for cats. I know the cat pop is up from back then, but can't say how much. It seems like we don't have the numbers of coyotes in the state that we used to have, but there are still plenty to catch!

Yeah, I'm serious. I'll be 60 in March. I used to love the cold but it chills me to the bone now. I've never caught a cat and can't in this part of SD so I'd just soon not if I can't keep it. I'm retired and don't need the money(or lack of) that comes from trapping. I get a kick out of coyotes, and like badgers in the spring here in SD. Badger fur holds up till April around here, and is very enjoyable trapping with no pheasant hunters to deal with or worry about with nice warm weather too. This isn't a hard core line I want, just a laid back gentleman's line. Thanks for the info.

I guess we all have our "threshold" points of when to change things up. I'm a bit younger and still don't mind the cold but have found that I'm not as "aggressive" to be out in it as decades ago. Then again, se SD isn't as cold as ne or nc SD. A couple of degrees of latitude to the north does make a difference. Funny how that pesky physical geography stuff influences things...

I've been on the Kansas fish and game site and couldn't find a season on Coyotes, I'm assuming that means year round trapping. Come to think of it I didn't see anything on snaring I guess I'll have to spend another hour looking for that. I perused the harvest report on cats and it looks like slim pickings on that western border, no problem if I got one that would be cool.

Yea it’s open season in Kansas on yotes.

Woodsman, like said above, yotes are open year round. Our season in Ks closes the fifteenth of Feb for everything but beaver and otter, and they go till the end of Mar. I love caatching badgers in the spring, but won't happen here. I've talked with the fur bearer bio about it, and he said it's an enforcement issue, so prolly ain't gonna happen! I'm like you, I trap because I love it, but Ks is getting more pressure from out of state trappers than ever. Lots of trappers coming from eastern and southern states to trap our ugly yotes. One of these days, yotes will be cheap again, and you won't see them again! lol. Oh yeah, no restrictions on snaring, except you have to have landowner permission along road rightaways, and no row trapping in Ks!

I don't know how accurate the cat numbers are by county. I would be willing to bet that not all cats are tagged in the county where their caught, especially out West. Might be more than you would be led to believe by reading the report.

There are no where near as many cats in the far west part of the state as there are in central and eastern Kansas. Just not near the amount of suitable cat habitat as there is further east and it is much more localized. Large wheat and irrigated corn fields do not make good bobcat habitat.

The cat numbers in the bobcat reports are based on the county the trapper or hunter SAYS each cat was taken, not the county where it was physically tagged.

Well the spring Badger thing wouldn't be a problem since I would be heading back to SD in early March. I see it's not prime pheasant hunting either, so that's good news, I hate dancing around bird hunters. Does no right of way include culvert pipes?

Landowners own from the center of the road here. If you want to trap culverts in the state, you have to have landowner permission. There is one other funny quirk, you can't desplay coyotes in Ks. I could tell you how this happened, but it don't change it. That just means they have to be out of sight in the truck. Most trappers don't advertise their presence anyway!

That's my point, it goes by where the trapper SAYS they were caught. I'm sure some aren't credited where they are caught and some are said to be caught where they weren't. As far as populations, I know we have lots more in the Central and Eastern part of the state.

Asking about trapping in culvert pipes, leads me to think that you may be assuming there are streams and other water courses in southwestern Kansas. There is rarely water in the Cimarron River in extreme southwest KS. There is normally some water in the Arkansas River for the most western county and a half (until it gets to an irrigation diversion), then very rarely is there water in the Ark River going on east, until somewhere east of Dodge City where a little flow begins again. Other than that, there really isn't much for live streams in the western 4 tiers of counties in southwest Kansas. There is lots of water out here, but it is a few hundred feet underground, and even that is rapidly declining.

Southwest Kansas is historically one of the better areas for pheasant hunting in Kansas, but only for the last year or two has the population come back up from being reduced by a severe drought a few years ago.

SD has several weather patterns look at South Central SD and save the drive~